Apocrypha to The Chronicles of Ken Sharpe, builder of Dubai in Zimbabwe
Lamentation 1
1
The words of Boaz, who was among the makorokoza of Mutevekwi, which he saw concerning Zimbabwe in the days of King Mswati III of Eswatini and in the days of King Charles III son of Elizabeth II of Great Britain, two years after the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.
2
And he said:
The Lord roars from Munhumutapa
and utters his voice from Mutiusinazita;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
and the top of Inyanga dries up.
the grass does not sign like Doris Lessing claimed;
but it withers, and birds fall from the trees from thirst.
3
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of ZACC,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have caught people involved in corruption;
and with speed and alacrity released them;
playing a game of catch and release,
so that my people who are called by my name might be deceived;
4
So I will send an indictment on the house of those responsible,
and it shall hover over their heads and haunt them to posterity,
the songs of the worship houses shall become wailings on that day,
says the Lord God;
the condemned shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be alert!
5
Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
6
saying, “When will the good harvest be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the further devaluation,
so that we may offer maize for sale?
we will make the ZWL smaller and the USD heavier
and practice deceit with false equivalences,
of one-to-one with the USD;
well knowing the utter damnation this causes on my people,
7
buying the poor man’s wares and labour for bond notes;
and the needy for mabhero castaways from afar;
and selling the sweepings of the fat as zapnacks.”
8
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Munhumutapa:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
9
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Zambezi,
and be tossed about in a roar and sink again, like the water at Mosi ya Tunya?
10
I will break the gate bars of those that sell justice
and cut off the cities built on greed from the Valley of Umwinsdale
and the one who holds the purse from Pomona new city,
and the people that pervert justice shall be charged like before,
and there will be no-one to withdraw charges against them this time;
says the Lord.
11
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the prosecutors,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they carried into Chikurubi many innocent persons,
and allowed the guilty to walk free.
12
So I will send a curse on the walls of 101 Kwame Nkrumah,
and it shall devour the corrupt within its strongholds.
13
For they have allowed the belief to fester;
that one can send a mosquito to fight malaria;
by claiming that by mere dint of calling the mosquito razor man,
Its evil can be sanitized and its nature cleansed;
I will turn my hand against them,
and those that survive on this greed shall be exposed and shall perish,
says the Lord God.
14
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the Civil Society,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have ripped open the nakedness of Munhumutapa
in order to enlarge their largesse from donations.
15
So I will kindle a fire against the wall of their donors,
and it shall devour their strongholds,
with shouting on the day of auditing,
with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;
16
then their donor shall turn round and ask,
he and his officials together,
“With all the money that we have invested,
what have you got to show,
says the Lord.
17
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the Bank,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they delivered entire communities over to poverty
and did not remember the covenant of probity;
and because they delivered busloads of new bills to the market not white;
and did not at once fear any consequences.
18
So inflation shall rage until they are exposed,
and it shall devour its strongholds.
19
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the politician,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because he pursued his brother with the sword
and cast off all pity;
he maintained his anger perpetually;
and kept his wrath forever.
20
So I will send a fire on his institutions,
and it shall devour them until he has none left.
21
Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the builder,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because he has used my name in vain,
in order that others might part with their money;
investing in a dream deferred till he is gone,
in order that there can be no accounting.
22
So I will kindle a fire against the wall of the claimed cities and malls,
and the weather shall devour its strongholds,
with subsidence, moulding and collapse,
with a storm on the day of the whirlwind;
no institutional investor shall purchase his wares,
and his roadshows shall reap the whirlwind;
22
then his corruption shall finally be revealed,
he and his enablers together,
we should have listened to the warnings and run for the hills, they will say,
but by then it will be too late;
their investments will be under water,
the money taken to Ukraine after the war,
or Mauritius of Seychelles by the Sea,
says the Lord.
END
